Ukulele Sing-A-Long: At The Movies Recap
Lights! Camera! Sing! Strum! Ukulele Sing-A-Long: At The Movies, with me, Mark Marston, and Lindsay McGinnis, had participants raving. Each day, students learned new songs from popular movies such as Lava (from the Pixar short), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (from The Lion King), You’re Welcome (from Moana), Remember Me (from Coco), In Summer (from Frozen), The Rainbow Connection (from The Muppet Movie) and Helpless (from Hamilton). Students also learned one piece for ukulele solo: The Theme from Harry Potter.
Each day I introduced chords and techniques that included strumming, chord plucking, chucking (a percussive technique). I showed students common patterns (like the “Island Strum” )and taught melodies using tablature. Students then worked with Ms Lindsay on vocal warm ups, stretches, lip trills, humming etc., then learned the new songs. Within the pieces, students learned to differentiate between head voice vs. chest voice, and produce both. Lindsay noticed a benefit of learning on Zoom; students singing at home without a piano and acapella (without other singers to reply on), are really good at matching pitches!
Each student lit up whenever they did a song that was already a favorite of theirs: one student really liked Hamilton, another really liked the song from Moana, and everyone liked Harry Potter. Songs like Lava and Lion Sleeps, less familiar but very catchy, provided enjoyment as well. One family commented that they found themselves walking around the house singing Lava all week! Another student was particularly excited about doing the Island Strum, and combined it immediately with any new chords he was shown.
One parent wrote: “We loved that you taught multiple levels and ways to play. It made it very easy for us as beginners even though the other students had done the classes before. Having the experience of singing and playing together was great.” From a student: “I like learning songs that I know about.”
Students practiced between classes with whatever songs were most appropriate for them. The older students who had done a course before practiced everything, while the beginner who was taking a course for the first time, practiced just some of the songs assigned. And thanks to that practice, the students became very good at matching pitch, even with segments that were more challenging. I was was a little surprised at that the songs the students enjoyed most of all were those that were less familiar to them.
Bravo to Aarnav, Ella, and Orion for their hard work! And here’s hoping we’ll see even more of a star-studded cast when there’s a sequel!
